One Response to Native Americans Discuss Immigration- Trump Style

A great way to contextualize Trump’s “Mexican Speech!” I’ve seen the argument with slogans like “Who’s the illegal immigrant here, pilgrim!?” In Germany, though, nationalists, racists, and xenophobes use Indian imagery and the traditional German fascination for Native Americans to profit from the current refugee crisis, using slogans such as “The Indians couldn’t stop immigration. Now they live on reservations.” By this, they follow in the tradition of the Nazis to portray Germans as an Indigenous people that is endangered by alien incursions. German Neonazis are actually saying “Our only chance for survival as a people is by being racists or we Germans will have the same fate as the Indians.” Co-victimization and distorted historical comparison at its best.
So, it feels a bit weird to see the same argument used to mean completely different things by so different groups of people. I’ve written a piece about it on my blog and will soon post more on the social media examples I’m currently working on : http://frankusbeck.net/2015/05/22/indian-imagery-as-a-role-model-for-german-racism-and-nationalism-then-and-now/
Thanks for sharing this image. Would you mind if I use it as a counter-example in my work?
All Best from Leipzig, Germany! Frank